Shockingly Cool

Sometimes, technology is over-rated. For instance, I remember watching the DVD of Lawrence of Arabia a while back, and a comment was made that this film could never be made today - because they NEVER would go to the desert, and sweep out all the footprints on each take. They'd use CGI and somehow, someway, it wouldn't look "right."

Well, here's more proof that the old-fashioned way sometimes flat out rocks. It's a collection of photos of U.S. solidiers from the early part of the last century, making shapes with their bodies and having the photos taken from an aerial view. Here's the Statue of Liberty:



From the photo album:

Englishman Arthur S Mole and his American colleague John D Thomas took these incredible pictures of thousands of soldiers forming icons of American history. Arthur's great nephew Joseph Mole, 70, says: "In the picture of the Statue of Liberty there are 18,000 men: 12,000 of them in the torch alone, but just 17 at the base. The men at the top of the picture are actually half a mile away from the men at the bottom."

Yeah, that's dope.

Check out the rest of this series and more great photos here, at Telegraph Picture Galleries.

A Brilliant Review

Courtesy of Kottke, I have to agree that this is one of the more brilliant beginnings to a book review I've ever read. It's written by Sam Anderson for NY Mag, and it's about William Vollman's newest book, Imperial. I should state that William Vollman is on my list of authors I know I should read, authors I want to read, but authors I never have read, in his case at least partially because everything he writes is mammoth:

Imperial is like Robert Caro’s The Power Broker with the attitude of Mike Davis’s City of Quartz, if Robert Caro had been raised in an abandoned grain silo by a band of feral raccoons, and if Mike Davis were the communications director of a heavily armed libertarian survivalist cult, and if the two of them had somehow managed to stitch John McPhee’s cortex onto the brain of a Gila monster, which they then sent to the Mexican border to conduct ten years of immersive research, and also if they wrote the entire manuscript on dried banana leaves with a toucan beak dipped in hobo blood, and then the book was line-edited during a 36-hour peyote séance by the ghosts of John Steinbeck, Jack London, and Sinclair Lewis, with 200 pages of endnotes faxed over by Henry David Thoreau’s great-great-great-great grandson from a concrete bunker under a toxic pond behind a maquiladora, and if at the last minute Herman Melville threw up all over the manuscript, rendering it illegible, so it had to be re-created from memory by a community-theater actor doing his best impression of Jack Kerouac. With photographs by Dorothea Lange. (Viking has my full blessing to use that as a blurb.)

I read this out loud to the wife, and she laughed and agreed that it was a great paragraph, and then paused...and said, "So, he didn't like it?"

I replied that I think he's just saying it's ... weird. And long. (Read the rest of the review to see his conclusion.) I still do want to read Vollman, but even more I think I want to read Sam Anderson's book reviews.

And Then There's Sanchez...Maybe.

As positive as I am about the Garko trade (regardless of whether it works out, it's exactly the right KIND of move Sabean should be making), I'm just as against the rumored Freddy Sanchez trade.



Sanchez is a 2B for the Pirates with a career OBP of .334, no power, no speed and a decent ability to score and knock in runs. In short, he's really nothing special. Apparently the Giants are going to give up more prospects for Sanchez than they did for Garko, and I can't quite figure out why. Sure, the Giants are woeful at 2B; the worst in the league, in fact. But who cares? I'd much rather have that as an offensive weakness (certainly, Emmanuel Burris or Eugenio Velez aren't out of the question to develop into hitters) than the outfield. Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn are apparently available. In fact, the rumor was that Carl Crawford could be had for the right price.

But hey, a light hitting middle infielder is available because his team is desperate to shed his salary!

Don't get it. Hope it doesn't happen.

In Which It Becomes Apparent I Need New Shoes

I really don't like buying shoes, which is apparent by the state of the soles of the two pairs of shoes I wear ... well, obviously pretty often:



This doesn't even do it justice. They're now in a better place.

Wisdom From The Right

To those that think I'm a shameless liberal partisan, here's a nod to David Frum, someone I almost never agree with, but whose article here acknowledges some very real truths others should listen to:

We should also have more charity to our political opponents – who after all are contending with hideous problems bequeathed to them by … by … well suddenly we Republicans cannot seem to remember who preceded Barack Obama in office. To listen to us, you’d think that the bailouts and takeovers started on January 20, 2009, not the previous March. You’d never know that TARP was supported by almost every Republican commentator, including the editors of National Review. Or that Vice President Cheney argued urgently in favor of the rescue of the Detroit automakers. Or that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enjoyed the backing of Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers.

One bad election converts us from ardent admirers of the American people to glum declinists who can see only a miserable moldering of a once great nation. I should have thought that conservative patriotism was made of stronger stuff.

The bold font is mine, but Frum is arguing for common sense here. Unfortunately, politics from both sides of the aisles rarely cares much about that.

Shatner for Veep!

Not as funny as the premise - which is quite funny - William Shatner, poet laureate, reads part of Sarah Palin's resignation speech on the Conan O'Brien show. While it should be funnier, it's still worth the short watch.



SHATNER!

Garko!

I spend a fair amount of time on this blog and elsewhere complaining about what a terrible, crap General Manager Brian Sabean is. While its easy to point to bad signings he's made, what irks me more is the possible trades and signings he doesn't ever seem to be interested in.

So, it's nice to see this trade for 1B Ryan Garko from the Indians, especially since we didn't give up a major prospect. The Giants sent LHP Scott Barnes, a single-A left-hander who is having a great season. Baseball America rated him as the 9th best prospect in the Giants farm system, so they certainly gave up value - but they got it back, too.

Garko has shown a good amount of promise, if not for a 40 HR season than certainly a 30 HR campaign. He's locked up for the next three years, which means he'll stay cheap. The idea of Garko and Pablo Sandoval manning the corners of the infield for the next three seasons has a lot of appeal. Add Buster Posey in at catcher, and you are starting to have an offense.

So, way to go, Sabean. Now, how about that outfield?

And On The Flip...

Call it counter-programming to the last post, call it what you will - but this should bring you back a bit.

Sure, it seems to be YouTube Friday here, but actually I was listening to This American Life yesterday, an old episode from 2001, where the interviewer decides that this is the greatest thing he's ever seen on TV and goes out to talk to one of the participants in this. (While most of the folks here are NBA stars, there are also several 'streetball-ers' who do some of the more fantastic tricks with the ball.)

Enjoy.

Sap Alert

OK, I think it's clear that I've been watching too much of So You Think You Can Dance, because I don't think I would have enjoyed this as much prior to seeing that show, but ... I think this probably has to go down as one of the best beginnings to a wedding that I've ever seen, especially since most of the participants don't seem like they're actually dancers or even that comfortable dancing. Just pretty awesome.



Yeah, I'm a sap. We've been over this, peeps. Deal.

Fiscal Hypocrisy

Sometimes, you want to write something and then you read what someone else has done, and they say it so succinctly, so pitch-perfect, that you are happy there's something called "blockquotes" in HTML.

The topic? Folks up in arms over the huge amount of spending that President Obama is undertaking, in his hopes of rescuing the economy from the mess the last guy got us into.


Apparently, as long as a Democrat is in the Oval Office, deficits DO matter.

The record is strikingly clear. When Bush/Cheney slashed taxes by well over $1 trillion, Republicans said there was no reason to worry about paying for it. When Bush/Cheney started the war in Afghanistan, Republicans said there was no reason to worry about paying for it. When Bush/Cheney started the war in Iraq, Republicans said there was no reason to worry about paying for it. When Bush/Cheney added Medicare Part D, Republicans said there was no reason to worry about paying for it.

It's not that their efforts at paying for it came up short, it's that they didn't even try. The notion of fiscal responsibility was simply deemed irrelevant -- an inconvenient detail for unnamed people in the future to worry about.

And now, these exact same policymakers are, with a straight face, complaining bitterly about the fiscal habits of Democrats who are -- in case anyone's forgotten -- actually trying to pay for much-needed health care reform.

Remember this when you see folks talking about the economic burden your children will have because of these policies - for one, that's incorrect - and for two, with some rare exceptions, they've only found Jesus on this one because their guy didn't win the election.

It's worth pointing out, as Steve Benen does in the above article, that not all of these complainers are Republicans. Some of them are conservative Democrats - who also voted for the tax cuts, the wars, the egregious Medicare bill - so yes, they are very much part of the problem.

The Latest Wordle

Click it to expand the view...looks like I've been focusing a bit heavily on politics in my limited recent posts. Expect a shift towards football and bad reality television shortly.

Recent Books

It had been awhile since I'd updated the 2009 Books List, which I'm sure has been keeping you up at nights.

Added my thoughts on the most recent books I've read, listed below:

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson
The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille
Downtown Owl, by Chuck Klosterman

To see my thoughts on each of these, check out the overall list. I must say, I've read more books this year than I would have guessed. Some good ones, too!

What up, baby giraffe?

By David Silverman/Getty, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.

Hey, why not? (I do really love this photo - the way you get a sense that this giraffe is small ONLY by the background being encompassed by what obviously must be a much larger, adult giraffe. Good stuff.

This Is Why EVERYBODY Hates Congress

This is truly mind-numbing, and a perfect example of why earmarks, lobbying and the way we allocate spending all need overhauls. This is something both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are guilty of and it just has to stop - we don't have the time or money for such nonsense.

An unlikely alliance of senators — led by Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and including Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut — is backing an indefensible defense budget boondoggle: the wasting of $1.75 billion on seven additional F-22 fighter jets that the Pentagon says it neither wants nor needs.

Got that? The Pentagon doesn't want it. But Congress wants to pay for it - because of the jobs Lockheed-Martin provides in these folks districts. Important, yes, but for $1.75 billion?

There's more:

The plane, the most expensive jet fighter ever built, was designed for cold war aerial combat. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has repeatedly argued that the Pentagon needs to phase out such high-cost, outdated programs so it can buy the kinds of weapons that American troops desperately need to complete their mission in Iraq and defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The F-22 has not been used in either war. Buying more would only make it harder for the Air Force to shift money into aircraft like unmanned intelligence drones and the more adaptable, cheaper-to-fly F-35 fighter, which is set to begin production in 2012.

Oh, and they aren't just expensive to build, they're incredibly expensive to maintain. And they haven't been used in either Iraq or Afghanistan:

The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show.

The aircraft's radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with unexpected shortcomings -- such as vulnerability to rain and other abrasion -- challenging Air Force and contractor technicians since the mid-1990s, according to Pentagon officials, internal documents and a former engineer.

While most aircraft fleets become easier and less costly to repair as they mature, key maintenance trends for the F-22 have been negative in recent years, and on average from October last year to this May, just 55 percent of the deployed F-22 fleet has been available to fulfill missions guarding U.S. airspace, the Defense Department acknowledged this week. The F-22 has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.

Listen, folks - STOP THIS. It's waste, and we KNOW that it's waste already. These planes won't make America stronger, they'll just make us poorer. I'm sure that Lockheed Martin can find new things for folks to build (maybe even ones that work).

Quit it already.

Answer: She Doesn't.

First, look at this ad:



Then, a very brief story. I boarded a plane from Los Angeles to San Francisco maybe eight or nine YEARS ago. While getting on, I could hear two women talking and one of their voices sounded familiar, though I couldn't place it at first.

As I walked through the first class section, I realized that I was hearing a voice that sounded very much like Meg Ryan. And then, I had the following thoughts/realizations:

1. Hey, that woman there looks sort of like Meg Ryan.
2. Hey, that's probably her mom. Wow, they have the exact same voice.

(and then, as I walked right past her)

3. Holy shit, that IS Meg Ryan and wow, does she not look good.

Now, I've always been a fan of hers, and while I think she only plays roles about 15 years younger than her actual age, I can't blame her so much. But man ... I'm telling you, she had more wrinkles on her face than a Shar-Pei. It was NOT pretty.

This doesn't make her a bad person, of course. It makes her human. I wouldn't have thought twice about it if it wasn't in such stark contrast to her on-screen image. She looked, basically, like a beautiful middle aged woman who had spent a bit too much time in the sun and under makeup. No crime there. (Also, I'm calling bullshit on "Age: 47" but whatever, let's move on.)

But, if the question is, "How does she look so young?" -- the answer is, "She doesn't."

That is all.

Eco, Air, Art.

Assuming that these bottles were truly recycled, and not just used straight off the factory floor, this is a great use of what is otherwise landfill:



I was thinking the other day about how much more I enjoyed basketball when Michael Jordan was playing. Not a terribly original thought, I will grant you, but it's a shame that time is long gone.

No, He Wasn't.

But would you have blamed him - really - if he had been?



Um, wait. My wife reads this. I meant to say, I'm so glad that he actually wasn't checking out the ass of a woman clearly not his wife. That would be irresponsible and rude and just flat out wrong.

If you want to see a perfect example of how Drudge, Fox News and other right-wing ninnies are trying to make hay out of nothing, watch the whole video (it's short) and see how obvious it is that Obama wasn't looking at this woman. In fact, it's a pretty easy argument to make that he didn't even SEE her, let alone gape at her. (The same can clearly NOT be said for Nicolas Sarcozy.)



But let them spin, spin, spin. It's what they do best.

Mark Morford Can Bring It

A sample:

No one ever imagined you'd step up to the mike and deliver one of the most barely coherent, side-steppin', nonsensical, what-the-hell-is-she-talking-about resignation speeches of all time, leaving your role as the right wing's most unlikely taste sensation to ... well, no one knows exactly who. Michele Bachmann? Trust me, Sarah, that flat-out nutbucket can't hold a candle to your winkin', smirkin', carefully manicured caricature of a smart female. Her ignorance and homophobia are far too literal and obvious. You were so much more fun, largely because no one can really understand a single word you say.

...



And what of your rumored 2012 presidential ambitions? I know I, for one, was seriously looking forward to your debates with President Obama. I was looking forward to hearing you try to pronounce Ahmadinejad's name, or locate France on a map, or explain what you'd do to fix health care ("free rifles for all schoolchildren" doesn't really count). I was eager to watch Obama struggle not to roll his eyes or chuckle softly or quietly pine for the good old days of his debates with Hillary, a woman of such fiery political intelligence she makes you look like Miley Cyrus trying to read Shakespeare. So cute!

Um, ouch. As always, though, Morford is well worth reading. Check out the whole article.

You Take The Good, You ... Well, You Know

I have to consider this a "good news, bad news" sort of story:

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures is bringing in Aaron Sorkin (West Wing) to salvage Moneyball, the Brad Pitt baseball drama that was derailed last month when the studio balked at director Steven Soderbergh's direction for the movie. Sorkin is set to do a polish of the original Steve Zaillian script, based on the Michael Lewis book about the Oakland A's and their general manager, Billy Beane. A draft is expected shortly. Soderbergh is no longer involved in the movie in any capacity and the studio is looking for a new director.

The good news? Aaron Sorkin - despite the insanely disappointing Studio 60 is consistently one of the best writers on the small and the big screen. Love his stuff. The bad news, I suppose, is that director Steven Soderbergh, who I also like, is off the gig.

There's a lot of talent going into this film, which doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be any good. The book was fantastic, but I can't say I ever saw it as anything but ... a book. I'm not sure the portrait of sound baseball management really translates to a movie. Or that I see Billy Beane as someone who could be played by Brad Pitt. It could work. It could be pretty unwatchable.

But either way, I'm glad Sorkin is on the dime.

Palin's Folly

As you've liked heard by now, Sarah Palin announced yesterday that she'll be resigning as Governor of Alaska before her (first) term is up. She stated several times that she'd given her reasons in the speech she gave yesterday, but so far, I can't find anyone on either side of the political spectrum who knows what it is.

I fully expect her to at least try and run for President in 2012, though her resume - thin already - can't be helped by quitting the only major political post she's ever had. "The Quitta From Wasilla" is a nickname I've already heard being used, for example. Of course, in Palin's brilliant combination of Orwellian and Kafkaesque dialogue, she has managed to say that actually finishing the job she was elected for would be the cheap, quitters way, but resigning? That's doing the hard work.

"Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and "go with the flow"

Yeah, I don't get it either.

My biggest gripe about all of this is that I had yet to make fun of the picture at the top of this post, since it just came out a few days ago. Seriously, what the fuck? Is she wearing stockings and a running outfit? I actually think the photo just below is worse - if you take it from the standpoint that she's supposed to be a serious politician, which even she seems to be admitting with her speech yesterday ain't the truth. What is up with this?

I sense that a scandal is on the fringe of being announced, criminal indictment, etc. (In fact, I saw a few tweets last night suggesting the same, but nothing this morning so it may be all someone's fantasies.) I also expect her to land a sweet gig on Fox News, and to never leave the television as a result. Sadly, this announcement may mean more Palin in all of our lives, not less.




In the interest of fairness, the below photo - from the same spread - is actually what I think she runs in, and this is a perfectly normal, flattering photo of an attractive woman who likes to run. Which makes the rest of the photos even more embarassing in that context.

For what it's worth, I just went to all the "news" channels to try and see what was going on here. They were focusing on home finance, what life is like as a dad, Michael Jackson, some more Michael Jackson, and - wait for it, it's actual news - North Korea launching some test missiles.

I'd call it a "newsflash" that our modern media absolutely sucks eggs, but I'm not sure what "news" is anymore.